Category Archives: Beanicus Sparticus

This is everything about Beanicus.

Messy

The original mastermind behind the recipe I am going to share with you all stated that this dish looks like the inside of her car. Messy, unorganized, basically a chaotic mess…. I have to say, this dish easily applies quite well to our current state of mind too.

Messy.

We have had a really challenging past few weeks, topping everything off with losing our beloved family pet, Bean cat, yesterday morning. She fell very ill and passed very quickly thereafter. We still can’t believe that she is actually gone, nor do I ever know if we will ever be able to accept the harsh reality of it all.

A gigantic ball of a mess.

I really like that this blog is positive and uplifting showcasing our experiences and the good memories of our life as we live and travel around the world. However, I feel that I, we, are in a really messy state of mind dealing with our loss. I’m not sure how this post is going to go.. I can hardly form complete thoughts from moment to moment, but typing or writing out things in the past has always been therapeutic and added a little peace.

There are still so many questions that we know will never be answered. Still so many things that race through our minds. All of the what ifs. All of the things we are beating ourselves up inside over. The guilt, the remorse, the anger of it all, not getting the chance to tell her goodbye.

Bean holds such a special place in our hearts. We adopted her as a kitten in our home state of Pennsylvania. From Pennsylvania Bean traveled and lived with us through all of our marriage monumental moments. She moved from our first home in PA, to our first apartment in VA, to our first overseas home in South Korea. Gosh she was such a brave spitfire of a cat! She was always with us, no matter what! Always there to greet us when we got home every evening, and always there to wake us up every morning (oh was she was good at that!) she kept us both company earning two Masters degrees with us (Trust us, she earned those two Masters degrees too, she put many hours sitting patiently in our office on the desk or chair alongside of us). When Mr. B would travel for work, or when he moved to South Korea for the first six months without us, she was there with me through it all. She kept us laughing, kept our spirits lifted, and rarely was bad.

Last night going to a place we call home, feels no longer like a home. There is such an emptiness in my heart and in this space. The silence is just so loud and feels so hard to deal with. This is the first time in over five and a half years that I have ever felt so incredibly alone. I know that I have a loving partner who is always there for me, a loving caring family, and amazing friends that are all over the world, however…I am so alone without her here. Everything we do reminds us of her. Any sounds that we hear from our neighbors makes us think its her getting into something or jumping up onto the table, but it’s not.. We went to bed last night so badly wanting to call her in to jump us with us… but we couldn’t.

It’s always such awkward feeling when you have a dear friend that loses a pet of family member. You never quite know what to say to them. You know that no matter what you say never is going to really help, but you offer those words of encouragement, blessings, prayers, etc. However, those words, thoughts, blessings and prayers were dearly appreciated. We truly are so thankful for everything from everyone and want to say thank you to the masses as best as we can. Knowing that you all were sending those prayers Bean’s way and for us meant the world. Thank you all so much.

As I said earlier, messy… perfect dish to sum everything up.

Brown Butter Garden Vegetable Pasta Bake

Recipe slightly adapted from How Sweet It Is.

Ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat pasta, like ziti or rotini
1 zucchini, chopped
1 cup grape or cherry tomatoes
1 small red onion, chopped
2 ears of fresh corn, cut off the cob
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 bag of shredded mozzarella cheese, or whatever you prefer

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Prepare water for pasta and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add pasta to cook. Drain when finished.

While pasta is cooking, heat a large pan on medium-low heat. Add in olive oil, then add in onions, zucchini, corn and tomatoes with salt and pepper, stirring to coat. Cook for 10-15 minutes, tossing occasionally, while softened.

While pasta and vegetables are cooking, heat a small saucepan oven medium heat. Add in butter and whisk constantly, stirring until bubbly and brown bits appear on the bottom, about 5-6 minutes. Remove and set aside.

Turn off heat under vegetables and add in pasta. Drizzle in brown butter and add in cheese, stirring well to coat. Put pasta into oven safe baking dish. Pop the dish on into the oven and cook for 10 minutes, or just until cheese is all melted and bubbly. Remove from oven, pop open a nice bottle of champagne or wine and please say a toast in remembrance of our dear Bean cat.

Backpackbees

Little Lady

Yes, this little lady gave us quite the scare last night…

Thankfully, after a trip to the Korean vet, an exam, x-rays, two magical shots, this little lady is back to her good old self.

I say magical because, within the hour after we got home, she was already on her way to recovery! Whew!

Cost? Take a guess….Are you ready for this?  45,000 WON… In terms of dollars think $45.00. for all of that! EEK!

The vet was wonderful! Can you believe he even asked that I call and update him the next day twice on how she was doing. What compassion!

Have we said how much we love Korea yet?

Fog

Do you ever have those days where your body feels like it could stay in your comfy bed all day long? That is exactly how Bean and I feel this morning. I think last night I committed some sort of social crime and took my 20 something body to bed before 10pm on a Friday night, my 9-year-old heart could hardly fathom it.

Look at that fog. That was this morning outside of our place. The closer we get to Halloween the fog always reminds me of some eerie Tim Burton movie, like the nightmare before Christmas. Gosh! I used to watch that movie over and over again as a child, while spending the weekends at my grandparents, eek. Do you think that’s something to be concerned about? I think if it was good enough for the Grandparents, and they still love me today, so it’s okay… Right?

The sun is slowly burning off the fog now, I love seeing the rays shine through the thick air. I am feeling more energetic as we speak. Guess now is as good of a time as any to take the first step out of bed, but not without my pink Hello Kitty slippers.

Enjoy your weekend ahead!

Wink and a Smile

“Well, you can’t have a dream
And cut it to fit
But when I saw you, I knew
We’d go together
Like a wink and a smile.”

Oh Ms. Bean, you are a riot!

We have purchased you numerous kitty beds, and yet you still insist on the comforts of a box.

Last night Mr. B could hardly contain himself, he walked into our bedroom and burst out laughing. I was snuggled under the covers already for bed, and there was Ms. Bean in her box already for bed too.

He said, “you two belong together.”

He’s right, we belong together like a wink and a smile 😉

Oh silly Bean! You brighten our world!

Peace

Good Morning,

The weekend has been very quaint and quiet. Very peaceful. I made sugar and cinnamon roasted mixed nuts, twice (EEk!) oOOOoh but the house smelled so divine! Celebrated a good friends 30th (surprise) birthday. I sipped hot tea, enjoyed the morning sunlight peering into the windows with Bean, and took Velma out for a spin among the marshmallow-clouded sky. Perfect in my book!

Hope you all had quaint and quiet ones too.

 

Sugar & Cinnamon Roasted Mixed Nuts

Ingredients:

1 Tsp Cinnamon

3 Tbsp Sugar -or- Splenda

1 Cup Mixed nuts

1 1/2 Tbsp Melted coconut oil (Or, if you are not a fan of coconut oil try grape-seed)

Lets get cooking!

Preheat your oven to 325F or 160/170C. In a mixing bowl, mix all of your ingredients except for your mixed nuts. Once all mixed, toss in your mixed nuts, combine. Spread nuts in a single layer on foil or parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Roast 15-20 minutes or until lightly toasted and you see your desired level of brownness. (Be careful! The sugar can have a tendency to burn if you let it go to long). You may lightly dust the final product once you take out of the oven if you desire.

For fun you can try adding in a pinch of brown sugar, or a pinch of nutmeg, even shredded coconut flakes are fun too! (Say’s the girl who despised coconut growing up)

Don’t say I didn’t warn you when your house is smelling incredibly sumptuous after about 5 minutes of these little gems roasting in your oven.

Enjoy!

Work Week

Well…at least one out of three of us is ready for the work week ahead…

It seems as though we are already speeding right on through the month of September. September is such a transitional month, what do you think? For the most part I feel like the month of September is such a long-awaited month of relief after the hot, sticky, humid Korean summer months. Back in our home state of Pennsylvania and here in South Korea, thankfully September means a more brisk and comfortable night. Don’t you just love when you can comfortably fall asleep with the windows open?

I’m falling asleep right this very second as I type. The chilled night air is creeping in, and the soft peaceful sound of the crickets chirping are coming through the wide open living room window screens.

ZzzzzzzzzZZZzzzzzz

Free Pass

There is just something about a rainy day that makes me think God is saying You can relax in sweatpants today….

Like a free pass…

Whatever the case,

I’ll take it!

Saturday was pretty relaxed and low-key for me (Mrs. B).  The rain came and went all day.

Not to draw attention to my alien toes… but, do you like the color of the toenails? I went with my dear friend and had a girls night. I let the young Korean girl who did them pick my color. I think its fun! I will have to blog about that entire experience soon.

I shared the quiet apartment with Miss Bean. Isn’t she just the cutest?

(Enter crazy cat lady section of the blog).

Mr. B went diving on the East Coast. Oh yes!  Like a proud little wife I have to congratulate him on his latest achievement on becoming certified as a Dive Master. You have no idea how hard this man has worked and studied to obtain this! I admire the drive and dedication he has, just one of the many reasons I love him so very much.

Okay, Okay… Enough of my mushy mushy.

I picked up a small gift that I wanted to give our friends tomorrow. I dawdled in the rain a bit to a Korean kitchen supply store near our place. I knew what I wanted in my mind, surprisingly I was able to find something fairly similar.

I got really crafty and used a paper Lotte Mart bag to wrap it up. Hey! reduce, reuse, recycle….oh no..it’s official… I’ve  been in Korea way to long.

How was your Saturday? Do you ever wrap gifts in crazy papers or materials?

Just curious… 

Right Now

I’m loving my cat Bean. She can be a monster, but this little lady brings us a lot of joy. We love waking up in the morning and finding her snuggled up close to our heads… (Who are we kidding here, she is totally waiting for her automatic feeder to drop her food)

Okay, Okay Sometimes she gets a little demanding…

BUT who wouldn’t love that face?

Happy Birthday Bean!

Happy Birthday Bean!

It’s Miss Bean’s birthday! We can’t believe it has already been 4 years since we adopted Bean as a kitten from the SPCA. We laugh when we think back on how teeny she was when we brought her home for the first time. Bean had HUGE ears and HUGE paws for her little kitten body. 4 years later I guess you can say she has really grown into them.

We could not imagine coming home and her not being there to greet us with her sassy attitude, or to have our iPhone cords, speaker cords, really any cords, not chewed through on a regular basis. What it would be like to not be woken up bright-and-early when she feels that we should be up, or when she HAS to come into the bathroom when we are getting a shower in the morning, or when she goes into the guestroom right after we have just cleaned and fixed the bed to mess the covers all up.

Ah yes…. Happy Birthday Beanicus!

Walking Around Dongducheon & New City Area

We have had many request from Mrs. Sylar’s class and friends to show them pictures of various things such as, what local schools look like, Korean houses/ apartment buildings, the local markets on a busy day, Miss Bean, what the area looks like, etc. Enjoy the various snapshots and feel free to request somethings that you might like us to capture.

Ohhhhh and I almost forgot – We found a pretty neat little coffee and tea spot in downtown Dongducheon too! At first I am thinking hmmm coffee and hotdogs(look at the sign)?? However, Koreans really love their hotdogs and we thought we would just try the place out. 

Check out the Cafe. at pictures located in the 04-05-2011 “Walk through Market and Dongducheon”. They have a really nice coffee bean roaster located in the front window of the cafe, seating inside and out, and just a  really neat and inviting  atmosphere! Everything offered on the little menu above the cash register was really reasonably priced. What’s the verdict on the place and most importantly how’s the coffee? Mr. B really liked his coffee and I enjoyed a green tea latte. We Bee’s will be definitely making this one of our regular stops on our walks.